# altmake

> Engineering notes on whatever I happen to be building, breaking, baking, or investigating.

altmake is Daniel Smith's personal site: write-ups of software, radio, and hardware projects, plus practical notes on baking and preparedness. Each article is the canonical version; project source and documentation live in the linked repositories.

## Pages

- [Home](https://altmake.com/): The latest articles.
- [Projects](https://altmake.com/projects/): Apps, sites, and tools Daniel Smith has built, with links to try them, their source, and their write-ups.
- [About](https://altmake.com/about/): Who Daniel Smith is and what this site covers.

## Articles

- [TiltSync: Solar Panel Alignment With Your Phone](https://altmake.com/posts/tiltsync-solar-panel-alignment-app/): TiltSync turns your phone into a solar panel alignment tool. It's out on iOS, and the Android beta needs testers.
- [ha-airspace: Local-First Aircraft and Drone Awareness in Home Assistant](https://altmake.com/posts/ha-airspace-local-airspace-awareness-home-assistant/): Local aircraft and drone tracking for Home Assistant, with MQTT alerts and optional internet enrichment.
- [Projection Mapping With AI: My End-to-End Workflow (2025)](https://altmake.com/posts/projection-mapping-with-ai-end-to-end-workflow-2025/): A practical pipeline for capturing, aligning, generating, and projecting AI-assisted visuals, ending with a Raspberry Pi playback loop.
- [Be Prepared: A Disaster, Survival, and Camping Checklist](https://altmake.com/posts/be-prepared-disaster-survival-camping-checklist/): What I keep in my everyday carry, go bag, vehicle, and home for disasters, emergencies, and camping, with the reasoning behind each item.
- [Sourdough Instructions](https://altmake.com/posts/sourdough-instructions/): How I keep a small 40-gram starter going and turn it into a loaf, from feeding to a step-by-step bake, plus a few tips for reading the dough.

## Projects

- [Austin Area Cameras](https://github.com/ifnull/traffic-camera-map): One map of the Austin area's public cameras, combining City of Austin snapshots, TxDOT live traffic video, and public webcams.
- [dump3411](https://github.com/ifnull/dump3411): A local Remote ID receiver that hears drone ID broadcasts over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, decodes ASTM F3411, and serves a live dashboard, JSON, and MQTT.
- [ha-airspace](https://github.com/ifnull/ha-airspace): Turns local ADS-B and Remote ID receivers into Home Assistant entities, alerts, and dashboards, without a cloud API.
- [Just Sensors](https://justsensors.altmake.com/): Explore more than 27 iPhone sensors with live visualizations, record sessions, stream readings over MQTT, and pair an Apple Watch.
- [SAMEasy](https://github.com/ifnull/sameasy): Decodes NOAA Weather Radio emergency alerts with an RTL-SDR and shows the current ones on an e-ink display.
- [TiltSync](https://github.com/ifnull/tiltshift): A solar panel alignment app that uses your phone's tilt sensor and compass, with haptic feedback, to set DIY panels to the best angle for year-round, seasonal, or daily sun.